The protests in Morocco are the latest large-scale uprising led by youth after demonstrations in Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines and Madagascar
For some ysis, we can bring in D.B. Subedi, a lecturer in peace and conflict studies at the University of Queensland in Australia
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. Thank you
Just first, what have been your thoughts as you've watched these protests unfolding in Morocco
Have you been making parallels with these other recent youth movements? Yeah, looking at the protest unfolding in Morocco, I can see that this protest actually reflects some of the concerns and some of the methods of youth-led protest
We have seen recently in other parts of the world, especially, you know, protests in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, Indonesia and Madagascar recently
So there are some common patterns, although the Moroccan protests are exclusively driven by certain trigger factors and, you know, underlying tensions in that country
We'll talk more about what brings these together. But first, can you talk a little bit about maybe what is specific to Morocco
In Morocco, actually, the trigger factor has been the government's decisions to invest in stadiums to build, you know, for World Cup, I think in 2030
You know, however, this also concerns with the youth's demand for delivering more on public services like health education
So people are actually demanding for more spendings on public services like health educations at the same time
And in the other protests, was corruption is the more driving factor or kind of what's the difference
Can you talk about some of the other driving factors in those other movements? Yeah, well, there are a number of common driving factors about this youth-led, Genji-led
protests around the world most recently. And one of the common factors is corruptions, which is obviously then impacts on growing
social inequality in other countries. So corruptions is one of the important factors
But together with corruptions then there are also other issues for example you know diminishing trust in public institutions government institutions but also political elites and rising socioeconomic inequalities in some of these countries are actually driving people to take to the streets
And you mentioned that the methods we're seeing are similar as well. Can you talk a little bit more about those and how we're seeing Gen Z use social media in particular
Yeah, well, social media has recently become one of the tools, repertoires of collective actions we have seen led by Genji's generations recently
What we have seen across the world is that, you know, these Genji-led, youth-led protests are, in a way, they seem to be like a leaderless, less hierarchical protest, which are different from political party and other organizations-led protests in the past
So this actually brings, it is leaderless in the sense that young generations are using social media as a facilitators to bring young people together in this, you know, collective protest
So in that sense, these are different from traditional political party and other organizations led, you know, protest movements of the past
And one of the striking features of these protests is that especially, you know, the generation G and younger generations are actually showing their concerns about the inequality, but also injustice, because they not only see this as, you know, sort of a governance issue or an issue of public service delivery, so to speak
But, you know, for these generations, corruptions and related issues like, you know, the domination of political elites, growing socioeconomic inequality, lack of employment or growing unemployment
And these kind of issues are also they see them as these issues as existential threats for younger generations
They take it very seriously. And social media, in fact, in this case, is actually playing as an amplifier of the voices
of people because people are on one hand you know amplifying their voices through social media They are actually amplifying the severity and then the gravity of these issues through social media but at the same time actually mobilizing social media as a repertoire of collective actions for these mass protests
And as you mentioned, these are leaderless movements. But in some countries like Nepal, I mean, we've seen them ultimately topple the government and Sri Lanka, you know, and kind of give way to organizing to really build a new process
What have we seen afterwards in some of those countries? I mean, are some of the leaders stepping up
Kind of what happens when the protests have died down and they're building the next chapter
Yeah, Nepal's case probably a bit different in terms of how the protests actually unfolded quite dramatically and rapidly
because the government collapsed within 24 hours, and then the Genji protesters were then invited to nominate their leaders to form a civil society-led government
And at that stage, Gengis, it seems to me that they were not even prepared to send a leader of Gengis to the government
And as a result of that, they reached out to other civil society leaders to find someone who would represent Gengis' voice in the government
That's how actually Nepal came up with forming a new government after the protest
Similar things happened in Bangladesh in 2024. But the case of Sri Lanka is different because the leadership actually emerged out of the existing parliamentary system
So what we have seen is that even though, you know, the protests have been largely leaderless protests, which is spontaneous, you know, in a way, spontaneous involvement and participation of voluntary participation of young people
once these protests actually sec or dismantle government institutions and in most cases collapse the government like the case of Bangladesh and Nepal
And then a new form of leadership emerge either from civil society organizations
with some support and some kind of involvement by Genji protesters But when it comes to actually initiating you know and mobilizing these protest movements they seem less hierarchical than the protests we have seen in the past
Okay, so you're saying that these protesters, you know, kind of, they make the change happen
but then are they not necessarily going to be a part of it afterwards? Or kind of
what is their role in rebuilding those countries? Yeah, this, we have to actually look at that kind
to answer that question by looking at examples on a case-to-case basis, as I said earlier
You know, for example, not all protest movements have a similar kind of political consequences
and this all depends on how the government in place responds to the protest movement
and what is the severity of political change and the nature of political change that comes
after this protest movement. And there have been different arrangements, as I said. You know
For example, in the Philippines and Indonesia, the government didn't collapse, but there has been some kind of negotiations
So it actually took a very different course to the kind of political and institutional change
Whereas in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal, there was a very significant fundamental shift in the system of government, especially in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, where there are civilian governments
In other places, for example, in Madagascar, the president dissolved actually the council of ministers and a new form of government is coming along the way
So which means like we can see a common pattern in terms of driving factors, what is driving this protest movement and how these protest movements have been, you know, organized and mobilized by the use of social media and other kinds of online platforms
But what kind of political changes it brings about depends on a particular context, and we must see them on a case-by-case basis
That's what I mean to say here. Okay, D.B. Subedi, thank you so much for your ysis this morning
Again, that was D.B. Subedi, a lecturer in peace and conflict studies at the University of Queensland, Australia
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